An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure Series: Fair Housing Education

Fair housing laws are not something to be treated lightly.  The law was enacted in order to protect the civil rights of all human beings living here in the United States.  Just because the law was enacted over 40 years ago, does not mean that we have breached the discrimination here in this country.  As last year’s CNN report so eloquently reports for us below. 

So this is just my personal reminder to not take proper training for granted.  Not only do you not want to face criminal proceedings and unwanted publicity if you and your staff are caught breaking the law, but you need to remind yourself and your team the depth of your belief in this important law that was enacted to give freedom and equality to all people.  The Fair housing act is constantly being reviewed and updated which continues to put great responsibility on the multifamily industry.

Take a minute and run through these memory tests

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch.html

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stm0.html

Here are a couple of others that you can just think about.

Name 10 people that you met for the first time at your last conference without looking at their business cards.

Recall the scores out loud of the 3 football games you were following last weekend.

Now you may or may not have done so well on these little tests.  Here is the point though; our memories are always being challenged.  Do you think it makes sense to take a fair housing course just once and feel that is all that is needed?  Do you think that this is all your team needs?  Please make good decisions.  Our memories are fickle and our able to retain and apply information is based on the repetition we give to any given subject.  Brent Williams from Multifamily Insiders made an important point yesterday with me.  It seems that there is much fear with multifamily professionals about committing a violation of the Fair housing act, which I agree with him 100 %.  It can be very scary to fulfill your work responsibilities and have the law hanging over your head.  Here is my little analogy.  I always had two types of emotions when I was about to complete my course exams at the end of my semester.  If I studied and worked hard, I walked into that room with a sense of confidence.  If I did not, then fear was the emotion of the moment.  

So that leaves us with this question.  If our team members are fearful over possible Fair housing violations, what are we doing to alleviate that?

Written by Jonathan Saar-- The Training Factor